Mannat - pensive.

Ah, the lovely old Nikkor manual-focus 50mm f/1.2 AI-s lens: I decided to dust mine off and start using it again... especially to take advantage of a FF sensor - this lens is just perfect for portrait use again. Though the plane-of-focus is so shallow from f/1.2 to f/4 - critical focus is an absolute must else the photo looks soft overall whereas this lens is not soft - when used properly, that is. Not easy, because of the shallow depth of focus!  The sharpness of this lens is different to the newer lenses - this one has lovely «soft-sharpness» which I just love.  This lens is outstanding used wide-open and up to f/8... beyond f/8 not so good... but then why use this very special f/1.2 lens if one needs to have «every thing in focus»?  Oh, and one more thing - just the heft and feel of this metal body smooth [manual] focus lens - a real pleasure in itself!

9th Birthday. Family tradition: cake in the morning even before breakfast.

   
Mannat is so excited today.... she is 9! We had the usual [super!] home baked cake early in the morning before she went off [skipped and hummed a tune] to school.  

The two girls were playing by the window this afternoon, and I saw this lovely soft light coming in through the sheer blinds of the window and highlighting Erin's face - the combination of the soft light on her face, her purple top and the egg-shell wall background looked so delicate and pretty. A quick grab of the camera, luckily had the 80-200 lens on already, and 3 frames in quick succession got me three nice portraits. This one is my favorite pick of the 3.

 And one of Mannat.